June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Rates for the largest oil tankers
hauling Middle East crude to Asia fell the most in a single
session for more than a month as the supply of ships expanded.

Charter costs for very large crude carriers transporting 2
million barrels of cargo on the benchmark journey to Japan from
Saudi Arabia slid 3.9 percent to 39.03 industry-standard
Worldscale points, according to the Baltic Exchange, the London-based publisher of freight rates. That’s the biggest one-day
fall since May 21, the data show.

The supply of VLCCs in the Persian Gulf over the next four
weeks expanded by eight to 89, according to figures from Marex
Spectron Group today. That compared with 58 tankers at the start
of the month, the broker’s data showed. The VLCC fleet’s
carrying capacity will expand 5.1 percent this year, near demand
growth of 5 percent, according to Clarkson Plc, the world’s
largest shipbroker.

Rates will remain between 40 and 42 worldscale points “for
the immediate near term,” Marex Spectron said in an e-mailed
report today.

Daily earnings for VLCCs on the benchmark voyage fell 9.9
percent to $12,393 according to the exchange. Those assessments
don’t reflect owners cutting speeds to save on fuel, their
biggest expense.

Worldscale points are a percentage of a nominal rate for
more than 320,000 specific routes. Flat rates for every voyage,
quoted in dollars a ton, are revised annually by the Worldscale
Association in London to reflect changing fuel costs, port
tariffs and exchange rates.

The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, a wider measure of oil-shipping costs that includes smaller vessels, slipped 0.5
percent to 580, according to the exchange.

The biggest one-day change in rates for ships hauling crude
was for tankers shipping 80,000 metric-ton cargoes to
Wilhelmshaven, Germany, from Primorsk, Russia, which lost 6.4
percent to 69.75 Worldscale points.

For vessels shipping refined fuels, the largest move was
for tankers hauling cargoes to Europe from the U.S. Gulf, which
increased 5.7 percent to 105.36 points, according to the
exchange.